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Retrocade - bartop


mikekim

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Just seeing Donkey Kong on your quadroped Retrocade is filling me with misty eyed nostalgia chunk. My cabinet has all been cnc'd and is being delivered to me after work. Probably take me a month of Sundays to build. Typical that I have an acer multitouch monitor coming for the home PC tomorrow, been waiting forever as I preordered it a few months ago. I bet I waste the entire weekend pretending that I am playing on an enormous iPad! :D

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I know I am a little late to this thread but after lurking a long while, I decided to place my first post just to say thanks Mike on such an inspirational job.

This has given my enthusiasm that extra push to get working on my own bartop. I have a 20" wide 2 player control panel which I built back in the spring. I like that width, so I am thinking I will use the sides from this design, but make the cab just a little wider. Only problem is that may mean back to the drawing board on the artwork?

Anyway, thanks again. What a fantastic Cab.

http://toptenretro.wordpress.com/

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I know I am a little late to this thread but after lurking a long while, I decided to place my first post just to say thanks Mike on such an inspirational job.

This has given my enthusiasm that extra push to get working on my own bartop. I have a 20" wide 2 player control panel which I built back in the spring. I like that width, so I am thinking I will use the sides from this design, but make the cab just a little wider. Only problem is that may mean back to the drawing board on the artwork?

Anyway, thanks again. What a fantastic Cab.

thanks for the compliment.

let me know the exact size of your Control Panel design, and i can modify the graphics to fit accordingly. (same goes for the front panel and Marquee)

Mike.

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Thanks mike. I will keep you posted once I start work on it.

I have a question about your speakers - it looks like two speakers in one unit on amazon, as opposed to a twin stereo speaker version of the same thing on there for 14.95. Did you use the single unit and de-case it ?

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A bit late to the party but nice looking bartop :top: It's good to see you went for the T-molding. The finish on any cab is what sets it apart - mine's been tinkered with for about 3 years to get it right.

i thinks thats the whole point of them, you are never finished, when you are then you move onto another project.

the rear shots as promised earlier this week

20121201102136.jpg

rear of cab showing vent holes, USB connections and single entry IEC C14 power socket. these panels i'm looking to replace with a single sheet of hardboard. (which i'll drill the holes first, before painting)

20121201102708.jpg

shot of inside of cab showing Ricco USB speakers - tbh for the £10 i spent on them they sound pretty good, as they are inside the cab it amplifies the bass sound, so they don't sound like cheap speakers. these are mounted using sticky velco strip.

the power is just two standard IEC leads (for pc and monitor) with the mains plugs cut and then joined together with crimp spade terminals and attached to the main input socket. simple but effective.

something not related, but comments will probably be forthcoming (as i know some of you like to comment on items in the background of shots).. The whiskies in the first shot on the shelf are just some of the 20+ bottles we have open at the moment for drinking.

All the good bottles are in display cabinets in the lounge (anything 18yrs +)

but for all you whisky buffs out there, here is a shot of what we picked up from a recent trip to the distilleries on Islay.

islay.jpg

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Hey there mikekim,

first of, two thumbs up and big respect for that extremely nice build of yours! Really awesome. Actually, so awesome that I was inspired - like many others - to try out your plans and strive for an equally nice bartop arcade. However, I find it extremely difficult to draw the sides of the bartop to create an exact decal set for the arcade. Especially since the rest of the artwork is almost finished, this is really a shame, because it puts the progress to a halt. I saw that you basically ordered "full" decals which you eventually cut after applying them to the bartop, right?! I was looking for an exact template of the sides so that I cold come up with a custom artwork that perfectly fits the form of the bartop itself. Though, I was wondering, do you by any chance have a template you might be able to share? Or is there anyone out there who had a similar problem as I do and could help out?

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Hi JogZter,

I dont have a mapped out plan for the sides.

However I should be able to map out an accurate photoshop template for the sides.

Give me a couple of days and I'll see what I can come up with.

Mike

Sent from my mind, using the psychic friends network..

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hey everyone,

I have been particularly fascinated with the designs of the retrocade bartop and have started my own build based on the plans available in here. I have drawn an - to my mind - exact replica of the sides and the different parts according to the exact measurements given in the description out of cardboard (having calculated of course, that cardboard is way thinner than 12mm MDF). The problem I am having now, the parts basically don't add up properly. Also, it is almost impossible to fit in my 19" monitor (4:3, display hight 30,5cm). If I will follow the plans, part of the monitor would be covered even without needing a proper bezel; taking a look at the other builds this can't be, basically, which makes this even weirder. Obviously, I am doing something wrong here.

I am wondering though, whether everybody followed the plan to the detail or whether you actually free-styled the build basically taking the plan as an inspiration. I am totally lost here and would love some feedback.

Mikekim, please, don't take this as criticism, for I really love your build, but I am having these troubles and just didn't know how to get this sorted out otherwise. Thanks a bunch!

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JogZter,

here is a shot of the front of the cab. i have placed 12" (30cm) ruler on the front for comparison. A 19" screen will fit in this cab, as I'm using one (a Sony x-black - de-cased). there is about a 1cm bezel at the top of the glass - you cab see the sliver edging of the screen at the bottom on the picture

frontkkt.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...
As far as using t molding what did you use to notch the edges? (Trying to avoid finding a slot cutter...)

2296.jpg?id=2296&clId=20&maxwidth=405&maxheight=248

I used the dremel 565 cutting kit

2257.jpg?id=2257&clId=20&maxwidth=405&maxheight=248

with a 1mm cutting disk 426, set to the centre line of the sides.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note II.

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  • 2 weeks later...
How do you get to the ftp site where you uploaded the psd files? I could only find the file earlier in the thread.

you need to be a Gold member to access the FTP. however the files are no longer there, so you have to download from the links earlier in the thread.

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Hi JogZter,

I dont have a mapped out plan for the sides.

However I should be able to map out an accurate photoshop template for the sides.

Give me a couple of days and I'll see what I can come up with.

Mike

Sent from my mind, using the psychic friends network..

Hey Mike, did you ever do this? It would be great to use as a template for cutting the sides on MDF. Thanks!

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Hey Mike, did you ever do this? It would be great to use as a template for cutting the sides on MDF. Thanks!

Nope, got sidetracked by other things. Managed to pick up the graph paper to get it done, just now need to find the time.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note II.

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Hello, I am new here and after watched this thread I decided to build an arcade cabinet myself. I have found plans CNC ready to cut (AutoCad source file with PDF extras previews) which I can provide if someone here is interested.

What I couldn't find is information about what joystick are better to be used. The cabinet will run games like MK2, Street Fighter, Metal Gear Slug, Donkey Kong Country, Mario 64, etc.

I was thinking about Sanwa JLW-UM-8 type from ultimarc, but I would like some thoughts about this from people already using them or maybe some suggestions about what to buy.

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I used mag stick joysticks in my build mate see below..page 7 for finished pics

http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/forum/showthread.php?p=171528

To be honest the travel from one side to the other is far to much. Im not really happy with them but would need new cp art to replace them...

My buttons are the rgb led ones from ultimarc..again they look great but I wouldnt say they feel like authentic arcade buttons...

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